Mix together the flour, ginger, bicarb and baking powder.Beat the egg.

Add a little of the dry ingredients and a little of the egg to the margerine/sugar/syrup mix. Mix well.Repeat until all is added.(NB: if you use large eggs (like me) then you'll probably need a bit more flour to stop it being too sticky)

Roll into balls, that are just smaller than a ping-pong ball.

Place 6 onto each baking tray (covered with baking parchment).

Cook at 200°C for about 10 minutes (keep an eye on them). Take out when deep golden brown and allow to cool on racks.

This mix makes about 40 or so, and if you want any left for the next day I'd advise keeping small children or other-halves out of the kitchen while they cool ;)

4oz soft margerine8oz caster sugar3 desert spoons of golden syrup?????What crazy country do you live in? And they claim you speak English over there in England. Gah. ;-)*walks into a book store...* "Excuse me but can I get an English to American dictionary? With baking measurement conversions? Thanks."

No, my spelling is so bad I didn't even notice yours. No conversions really needed. I'm lazy, but can figure it out. I'm used to butter being labled in Tablespoons, teaspoons, lbs or cups, not oz. I'm bad at how many oz in a cup, but can figure that out. What's caster sugar? That just a brand of granulated sugar? what's golden syrup? I'm assuming that one is corn syrup. I just find things like that interesting. I have a recipe from someone from India that calls for several tablespoons of this and that. It didn't work out, and I found out that she was talking about just a small spoon you use at the table. I like language differences, they make me laugh. :-)

Caster sugar is white sugar that's a softer sort of sugar than granulated. The cookbook that knows everything1 has this definition for Caster sugar: "A fine, white sugar useful for most sweetening purposes, expecially for sprinking on pudding and fresh fruit and for cake-making, when it produces a finer texture than granulated sugar." So finer than granulated, but coarser than icing sugar.

The book that knows everything also tells me that 1 USA cup = 8 fluid oz. But I've no idea (and it doesn't tell me) how much that is in dry weight terms. Maybe that should be obvious ;)

As far as golden syrup goes, the book that knows everything suggests that maple syrup "is very much used in Canada and the USA, and can be used in the same way as golden syrup". Golden syrup is much like treacle except gold coloured and not as strong tasting. It's not as strong tasting as the maple syrup I've had in the past, either.

1The cookbook that knows everything is "The Penguin Cookery Book" by Bee Nilson. It was written in 1952, and the edition I have was published in 1972 and it shows. It claims to be for the beginner cook, and says in the introduction to the new edition "Brides have told me that the simplicity of the book has given them confidence, and husbands have written of their appreciation of the results. Bachelors, too, have taught themselves to cook from it" *giggle*. I don't think I've ever used a particular recipe from it, but when I need to know something like: what the Roux method of making a white sauce is, or what the best cut of beef to use to fry is, or what the definition of a common ingredient is, or how to prepare a particular vegetable, this is the book I look it up in. It has a method for everything providing you don't stray from traditional British cooking. (The curry recipe, for instance, isn't a curry any Indian would recognise and she'd never heard of stir fry).